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Taking the aesthetics and some of the general gameplay of the remake of “Link’s Awakening” and combining it with a few ideas from the “Breath of the Wild” era games, “Echoes of Wisdom” becomes a solid experience that makes up for the general lack of originality with a game mechanic that allows incredible gameplay freedom.
This game is pretty much what it appears to be on the surface, and that’s a game that was created after the team the remade “Link’s Awakening” decided that they wanted to use their game engine to make a new Zelda game. Aside from switching out Link for Zelda as the main protagonist, the basic plot and overall gameplay is the same as most of the installments in the franchise: You clear a series of dungeons, help out people around Hyrule and then move on to your final battle. While the dungeons unlock in stages as the plot progresses, you’re mostly free to explore the world almost from the start. And although the world seems fairly large on the map, it’s not as expansive as it seems and is nowhere near as big as the 3D Zelda versions of Hyrule. (Not to mention plenty of fast travel points all over the land.)
Where the game excels is the echoes gimmick. As you collect various echoes of objects and monsters, your gameplay begins to rapidly change. Depending on what order you proceed and what echoes you pick up, the way you approach puzzles, obstacles, and battles can vary greatly. (Even somebody who has the same echoes as you might approach things completely differently.) There’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you find the right combination of echoes to achieve your goal, whether you did it the way the game intended, or you found your own unique way that even the game developers never dreamed of. Unfortunately, this mechanic doesn’t translate as well for combat. While there are moments it’s fun to sit back and watch your stronger echoes carve through enemies, there are times when it’s boring to have to sit there and watch them do the work for you, often way too slow for your liking. The sword fighter mode makes up for this, but since the effects are limited and it’s much harder to keep the meter filled in the overworld, it’s not quite enough to balance out the gameplay.
The game is vividly colored with lush and varied environments, but the plastic, almost Lego-movie style of animation make you feel more like you’re playing with toys instead of journeying through the mystical lands of Hyrule. Also, even on normal mode, the game is relatively easy. The puzzles are usually kind of obvious, there’s so many different ways to heal that it’s not that hard to avoid getting killed, and with some fairly thorough exploring, you should find almost all the major collectibles without any help from walkthroughs. (Getting 100% is relatively easy, and there’s very little grinding involved.)
Princess Zelda’s first true solo adventure is a worthy entry to the franchise that’s named after her, and despite not having much innovation in the classic 2D top-down formula, the sandbox elements make the playthrough feel unique, especially with what feels like almost limitless possibilities of how you can use the echoes.
*** out of *****